Respectable numbers! This finance geek is itching to know the negative cost though but totally understand those numbers are likely to never leak.

Edited to add that any speculation on cost or profit is pure guessing since as far as I know Bellwether has not said anything. Could have been $100K and it could have been $1M. Also there is no way to know how much of a cut Lionsgate is taking for distribution since it will obviously be a much higher percentage than they would take on a larger film. So even though $1.2m is nothing to sneeze at for a black and white Shakespeare film there is no way to know if Joss&Kai are in the black on this film or not.

I'm willing to bet that large studio execs are watching the box office of this movie closely. My prediction is that Bellwether Pictures is on the leading edge of a trend towards quality, small-budget films that can make their money back quickly.

I'm thrilled, I hope this insures that it'll still be in theaters NEXT weekend (which will be the first chance I've had to go again). I want to see it in theaters at least one more time. But then I want to buy copies of the DVD for myself and all my friends (hopefully for this Christmas!).

Joss specifically refused to answer Colbert's question as to how much it cost to make, didn't he? So, yeah, they don't appear to be discussing that. I saw some story saying it was less than it cost to make Dr. Horrible but I don't remember the story sourcing that.

I can imagine a scenario where Lionsgate takes a 20% cut then deducts all marketing and distribution costs from the approximately 50% of the Box office it will receive and returns very little to Bellwether. Maybe not enough to cover costs and all the travel by the cast to support the film. Any profit will probably be made with SVOD/BD/TV deals.

It will be interesting to find out if 'Much Ado About Nothing' does manage to get wider distribution (when all is said and done) than 'Doctor Horrible' did. My understanding (just from comments made online) was that 'Doctor Horrible' cost about $300k to make and made about $3 million from iTunes and DVD sales. I never heard what that meant in terms of how many people saw it (including how many saw it for free online) around the world. Part of the joy of making something small and independent, I would assume, is not in making the big bucks, but in being able to really share your creation globally.

I believe the quote on Colbert was "less than 1 billion", heh. Though they were then also getting it a bit confused because when you say the Avengers was a $1 billion movie, that's talking about revenue, not cost.

Called my local Regal theater last night asking about this Friday's upcoming giveaway for the fan-created poster. They didn't know about it, but said they had mini posters. Glad to go because they also had bookmarks and sunglasses.

Scraggls and apollo11, it can help if you contact your independent theater owner and ask them to get the film (it would reassure them that there is an audience for the film). We don't have a Regal and/or Landmark theater in Iowa, but the Fluer in Des Moines DID get it, and my request for them to get it might have helped.

If I had the luxury of time, I'd just plan a visit to the big city and stay overnight, so watching the movie would just be part of an adventure. Preferably somewhere WAY up north, with less heat to cope with.